


Wedding Speech Etiquette and the Fundamentals of Freestyling

by itslikegodspilledaperson



Series: The Edison/Winger Chronicles [4]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 14:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3696008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itslikegodspilledaperson/pseuds/itslikegodspilledaperson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian Duncan and Shirley Bennett give their respective toasts to the happy bride and groom.  Part 4 of the Edison/Winger Chronicles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding Speech Etiquette and the Fundamentals of Freestyling

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a bit shorter, but i thought another wedding piece would be fun! Both Annie's parents and Jeff's mom make a cameo in the beginning, Lynda Carter and Gary Sinise reprise their roles as Annie's parents, and be creative with Jeff's mother.

The reception, which was held on the same grounds as the wedding, was a blast. Jeff and Annie had chosen the catering, and the food was served buffet-style. It was delicious. At his table sat his mom and her new husband whom she had met online, Frank. Frank was a good guy and seemed to treat his mom well, so Jeff couldn’t complain. The bridesmaids and groomsmen sat as well, along with Annie’s mother and father. For a while he was worried that they wouldn’t get along but as of right now they were amicably making small talk and catching the other up on what they’d been up to for the past 20 years. They smiled and laughed once or twice, which got a giddy reaction out of Annie. She even pinched Jeff’s shoulder when she saw her dad briefly put his hand on her mom’s arm. He looked over, happy that they had been getting along so well.

“They grow up so fast,” he said in a playful mock-parental tone which warranted him a slap to the chest. Everyone was just about finished eating, when a boozed up Duncan decided it was time to give his speech. But not without protest from Shirley, the maid of honor. Like drunk little children, they began to fight for the microphone before turning to Jeff. 

“Jeff, I wanna go first!” Duncan pleaded as if he was a whiny 6 year old fighting over a Tonka Truck, his words slurring a little more than just a bit. His case was not without a rebuttal by Shirley.

“Jeff-rey, remember when I forgave you after you crashed my rehearsal with a drunken toast about how marriage is a lie?” Shirley said in her “This is not a question” tone. He could hear Annie laughing next to him, recalling the incident as Jeff nodded grimly. 

“Sorry, Duncan. She’s got ya beat.”

“Ugh,” Annie snorted next to him, a smile creeping on her face. “How come you get to choose who toasts first,” she said on her mock high horse.

“I could roll die”, Abed volunteered before Jeff shot him a “don’t you dare” look. He turned back to his bride, giving her a quick peck on the cheek and conceding:

“Okay, sweetie. You choose.”

A satisfied grin creeped up Annie’s face as she sat up in her chair, and smiled. “Shirley.”

“Awww no fair! I never get to do anything!” Duncan pouted as he handed the mic over and sat down before pulling a flask out of his suit coat.

“Duncan, you’ll literally get your chance five minutes from now. Rehearse some more.”

The Brit nodded bashfully, as he pulled out a piece of notebook paper from inside his coat pocket, examining its words in a perplexed manner for a few seconds before realizing it was upside down. Shirley stood up, and faced the reception who were already getting a kick out of the shenanigans at the head table. She tapped her glass a few times to quiet everyone down. 

“Hello-o everybody, my name is Shirley, and as you know I am Annie’s maid of honor,” she said in her sweet voice. 

“Now, I don’t want to take up too much time, but I have something I want to say quickly. When I met An-nie the first day of Spanish, she was a strong woman. She was driven, focused, and she didn’t take no crap from anybody. But she was an 18 year old girl in a school where the average student age was 26. She was an idealist in a school of slackers. And not only did she not let that slacker mentality get to her, she somehow managed to infuse the school with that young, undying energy she possessed. But there was always one person she seemed to affect more than anyone else; and one student who seemed to affect her more than anyone else. And that was Jeffrey. She taught him that being isolated and walled off is no way to go through life. He taught her that sometimes it’s okay for things to not go as planned. And it’s okay to not have your entire life mapped out ahead of you, because what you want at age 24 is much different than what you wanted in high school. These two have been on a collision course since the first day of our Spanish study group, and maybe they hid their feelings for each other for the better part of 5 years, but maybe it’s better that way. Maybe they needed to help each other grow as friends before they could allow themselves to be committed. All I know is that when our friend Abed predicted that they would kiss during a debate back in our first year of college together, we all thought it was the silliest, most nonsensical, prediction ever from a boy who’s usually spot on. Well, one debate kiss, and many many non-debate kisses later, his prediction may have been the most spot on of all.”

Jeff put his arm around Annie, and she relaxed her head on his shoulders.

“To the Annie of it all, and to the happy couple!” she concluded.

Shirley raised her glass, and everyone drank. Next, Duncan stumbled up to the microphone, snatching it from Shirley with a drunken bravado unrivaled by anyone at the reception. “Thank you Shirley,” he boomed. “That was very beautiful. But... prepare to have your MINDS BLOWN. DJ, drop a beat!” 

“No rapping!” Jeff ordered. 

Duncan looked back at him with an exasperated look, putting the paper back into the coat. “Okay, so maybe we’ll save the rapping for later. Guess I’ll have to wing this one…or should I say WINGER THIS ONE” he jeers, evidently way too proud of himself for thinking of a pun that was average at best.

Jeff exaggeratedly rolled his eyes as his drinking buddy steadied himself on a chair, looking out at the crowd. He cleared his throat, and in a surprisingly normal tone, started his speech.

“Hello, everyone I am Professor Ian Duncan, Tenured professor at Greendale, persecuted intellectual, and amateur gangster rapper. It may be hard to imagine, but I used to have quiiiite the drinking problem. I know, I know, shocking. But that problem is what brought this man, my lawyer Jeff Winger into my life. The Jeff Winger I met ten years ago…is not the Jeff Winger who sits in front of you today. He was a borderline sociopath. If he stood to gain from it, he could convince someone the Sun was pink and that snow grew from the ground. He conned his way into one of the biggest Law firms in the Western United States, he convinced a grand jury that my drunk U-Turn on the expressway was my way of showing my love for America, and….he pretended to be a Spanish tutor to woo a certain fellow student. Ok fine, it was Britta. Say hiiii, Britta.”

Britta waved uncomfortably to everybody.

“But things all changed when he left to meet me in the middle of the mass grave that Greendale calls a football field. He was trying to get all the test answers from me, by the way. I refused, because…I have academic integrity. Kind of. Also because no such thing exists. Seriously, Jeff not all teachers are that prepared. You should know that by now. But anyways, as he would tell me that next day when we were out drinking, he came back to that library and there was an actual study group there. He told me about each member of the group, but amongst them was the rose sitting in front of me, Miss Annie Edison-Winger. When he talked about her, his voice raised just the tiniest of bits. It raised in a way that it only raised when Jeff talked about his mother. And I saw something in his eyes that I never saw. Something flickered. First, I'm pretty sure he was about to break the seal. But also, something triggered in his heart that had not been touched for a long time. And that’s when things began to change for Jeff Winger. He would never admit it to anybody, but it was evident on his face and in his tone. He started to care for people, he stopped thinking about himself, and he began to STUDY for things. If you asked him back then he would have flatly denied it. But he did. And it was Annie who changed him. See, deep down, Jeff Winger has always been a good bloke. Even during his selfish lawyer days. If you dug past the scotch and suits and protein supplements, past the isolation and apathy, there was a small beacon of light. But it was hidden. No one could see it, especially not Jeff. But Annie Edison always saw it. She’s not the one who brought it to the surface, but, she’s the one who made Jeff WANT to bring it to the surface. She made Jeff want to see the same light in himself that she saw in him. And as Jeff himself would say, the key to anything isn’t making someone do something. It’s helpng them realize they want to do it. Annie didn’t make Jeff a better person, but she did see the kind of person he could be. And as Jeffrey began to become stronger, so did his feelings for Annie. It grew from caring, to fancying, and eventually, when he least expected it, loving. Need proof? He actually used his love for Annie to turn on a love robot and unlock the door of a secret computer bunker. Let that sink in for just a moment. His love literally opened the door! Take THAT, Pete Townshend! So… cheers to the happy couple! And pick up my mixtape on your way out, I slipped the CD’s into the gift baskets on the way in and I can assure you they’re fire. T-DUNKS OUT!” 

Wow, Jeff thought as Annie put her arm around his waist and squeezed. Duncan had surprisingly hit the spot, aside from the shameless self-promotion at the end there. He stood up and hugged Ian as he walked by 

“You’re not the only one who can give speeches on a whim, my good man” Duncan said to Jeff, before they both returned to their seat.  
Jeff looked down at Annie, who was leaning against him and looking up. 

“Before I forget…” She began with a smirk. "We need to remove ‘T-Dunks’ CDs from the gift baskets…” 

He lifted his eyebrows. “We need to destroy MOST of the CD’s. I kinda want a copy for myself. An Ian Duncan mixtape is practically begging to be used as blackmail.” 

She smiled feverishly at him. “You’re evil, you know that?”

“And yet you married me.”

“Your evil has a tendency of benefiting me so I look the other way.” She winked and raised her head a couple inches to lay a lingering kiss on his cheeks. His heart fluttered a bit before he decided to backtrack.

“But the freestyling aside, T-Dunks is right, you know. If it weren’t for you, I’d be back at some big firm, sitting alone in my apartment night after night drinking to forget about the scumbags I just helped set loose.”

She smiled, “Well, I’m glad I could help. If it’s any consolation I’d be working for a big pharmaceutical company right now, sitting home at night trying to forget about the new Little Annie Adderall’s I created if it weren’t for you.”

“Well, when you put it like that….”

His train of thought trailed. He couldn’t help but get lost in her Disney eyes that stared up at him. They were so warm and so easy to get lost in, and he was so thankful that they were his to get lost in for as long as he lived.

“Even?” He asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Even,” she confirmed, winking at him before raising her head up and kissing his cheek once again.

**Author's Note:**

> The Maid of Honor isn't required to give a speech, but hey i'm all about equality and a heartfelt Shirley speech was too good to pass up! I've always thought that Shirley had a pretty good bond with Annie especially early on. Man, i really miss Shirley... :(


End file.
